EA, MLG Expand Partnership To Include Online Tournament Play

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Electronic Arts and Major League Gaming have expanded their existing partnership to integrate online tournament functionality into several upcoming EA Sports videogame titles. Within several key titles, played on Internet-connected game consoles, including "Madden NFL," "FIFA," and EA's upcoming MMA game, new online game lobbies will be created that will lead to MLG-sanctioned, branded and refereed game tournaments. The MLG-powered functionality will also track scoring, statistics and rankings, with that data easily uploadable to a new EA Sports competitive gaming Web site being developed in partnership with MLG. The two companies first partnered last year to create the EA Sports Challenge Series, a series of live gaming tournaments operated by MLG, and the new online tournament play will in part serve as qualifying rounds for those in-person events. "We think this gets at the social experience of console gaming that everybody is looking for," said MLG President & CEO Matthew Bromberg. "In gaming, competition is social networking. It's the same thing. That's the interaction. People want to see how they stack up against other gamers, and now we've created a really seamless, integrated way to do that."